Getting back to TiVo... I actually use it to watch less TV.  You see television shows usually contain about fifteen to twenty minutes of mind-numbing commercials.  With my DVR, you can actually start viewing the television show about fifteen minutes into it, fast-forward through all of the commercials, and end the show at the exact same time.  You've essentially shortened an hour-long program into 45 minutes, and condensed the fifteen minutes of commercial viewing for some other valued (or not) purpose.  You can also watch something else (even a recorded show) while you are recording something else, a task that would require at least two VCR's running simultaneously.

But, a man that is satisfied is a man that can't be convinced.  So, if you are satisfied with your VHS recordings, then who am I to argue?

Most folks, though, don't need it. Lawyers who are in courtrooms most of the time may need to use text-messaging frequently. The number of people who need that capability is far, far lower than the number of people who think they need it, though.

Text-messaging, like the internet, has enormous potential utility that often is squandered in practice, as I suspect most text-messaging is of the hey-man-what-you-doing/nothing-man-what-you-doing/nothing-man variety.

SMQ makes a legitimate point, as well. As someone with a background both in persuasive writing and in public speaking, I see the benefits of both. I agree with Thomas Jefferson that the president's state of the union message should be delivered to Congress in writing, rather than verbally, because writing is the method of communication most conducive to the sorts of deliberations our Constitutional structure demands of the first branch of government.

However, e-mail is nowhere near as conducive to clear communication as a phone call. Tone, inflection, humor, sarcasm, and the like all get lost in e-mails, which constantly are a source of misunderstanding unless they are boiled down to their bare essence to an extent that robs them of all personality. I would rather hear someone emote than see someone's emoticons.

I have never either sent or received a text message, but, given the shorthand argot in which such communication takes place, I cannot imagine that it is an effective mechanism for real communication to anything like the degree of a genuine human conversation, in which we actually listen to one another.

Just as there will never be a compilation of correspondence made over e-mail that compares to the collections of letters between, say, Shelby Foote and Walker Percy or Maxwell Perkins and Thomas Wolfe, there likewise will never be an Algonquin Round Table of text-messaging.

Lengthy discourses such as those at SMQ's and my respective weblogs certainly are more effective in print than they would be as stemwinding speeches, but not all written communication is inherently superior to all verbal communication, and I suspect text-messaging to be the worst of the worst . . . worse even than e-mail, if such a thing is even conceivable.

I served on the Student Judiciary from 1989 to 1993, including a stint as chief justice in 1991.

You didn't happen to pass through O.J.P., as well, did you?

Yes, you can set a VCR (if you wish) to record the same time slot weekly.  But TiVo will (if you wish) grab an entire season of your favorite show, skipping the reruns (if you wish).  Even if the show changes time slots, TiVo will find it.  And there's no changing tapes or fast-forwarding to find the program you recorded.

Except for important live events (like Georgia's away games), I have torn myself entirely away from the network's scheduling.  I can watch My Name is Earl, skipping commercials, while my machine is recording Scrubs, so I can skip those commercials when I feel like watching it.

I've found that TiVo doesn't do that good of a job with its recording of "suggestions" for me.  But I love old movies.  If I get into a Jimmy Stewart or Hitchcock or DeNiro or Grace Kelly or Robert Mitchum mood, I can "tell" TiVo to go get all the movies with each of those folks, wherever they are "airing".  I don't have to study TV listings and set a VCR to catch some TCM movie at 3 am.  It's done for me.

With Georgia away games, this past season I made myself start watching them 10-15 minutes late so I could skip through commercials for a while.  Add to that the pauses for bathroom or snack breaks, and it works out pretty good.  And pauses and replays are not bad at all when you're the one holding the remote.

My brother and sister-in-law find it's great for storing up lots of Dora the Explorers and Clifford the Big Red Dogs and whatever that octopus's name is for my 5 and 3 year old nieces.  HRH the elder sister is a whiz with that TiVo remote.  (I have to add that television is not used as a full-time babysitter in their home, but it's nice for breaks when supper's being prepared.)

Jeez, Kyle, my parents (70 and 69) have TiVo and use it all the time (it was a gift from their sons a while back).  And realize that I grew up in the last family in town to get a VCR, microwave oven, and touchtone phone.

[When I was a kid, dialing the last 5 digits of a number was sufficient.  When we had to start dialing the extension, too, it was a big help to press buttons when every number began with TUxedo (88).]

But I'm 100% with you on the whole text-messaging thing.  I won't type with my thumbs.